Betty Lou Fashions: Tinted Jars

Hello! I know it been a long time since my last post, sorry about that. This craft project is every where! Most are using brand name jars but I wouldn't pay for a real canning jars, just to put colored glue inside. So I recycled my jam and condiment jars for this project. Personally, I think more goods should be put in glass vessels.

Jewel Tone Jars

Supplies:

Clean Jars
Mod Podge in Gloss (Shimmer optional)

Liquid Food Color
Plastic bowl, maybe a tupperware that lost its lid?
Rubber Scraper
Wood Skewers
Paper Towels

I saved up my jars before making the batch.

I would say the most importent step in project is cleaning the jars. I used a razor and Goo Gone to remove the glue from the labels. Then ran them in the dishwasher, even after all that I still had to hand wash two of the jam jars.

Squeaky Clean

Next is setting up the work station. I picked out my colors; purple, green and blue. Then arranged the jars in rows according to color. In another spot, lay out paper towels and place some skewers in rows to set the jars on after the glueing.

I didn't measure out the glue, I just eyeballed it. For the first three jars I used roughly a third of the 8oz jar of Mod Podge. After trying to mix the color with the skewer (not smart) I grab a rubber scraper. Also I would make sure to fold in the color to minimise bubbles.

This purple was 5 drops red to 4 drops blue.

After you have the color you want, work fast. Pour in a little more glue than you think will cover the jar. If your doing more then one jar in a color just tap the excess back in the mixing dish.

Start by rolling the glue around the jar. There will be a point where the glue doesn't look like its moving. That ok, use a skewer to scrape around and free up the glue. Then tap! Tapping the jar is going to be the best for evening the glue out. Just whack the jars like you trying to get ketchup out of pesky bottle. This will move the glue down the jar and heal the lines from the skewer. Make sure to tap out the excess really well.

This was a horseradish jar.

Now set the jar up-side down on the skewers. I only left the jars like this till I was done will the rest.

One down

Purple trio

I repeated the steps for green. Then I did some experimenting! Shimmer Mod Podge has really fine metallic flakes, like car paint. For the last jar I mixed around two parts gloss to one part shimmer and food color.

Shimmer comes in silver and gold.

All done

Now the drying part is where everyone has different methods. Some say air dry up-side down for a few days and some say use the oven for a few hours. I chose to use the oven at 170º F. There is now the conundrum of putting them in up-side down or not? I could have tried both but I just put them in right side up. I wish I had done both now, cause some of the jars have a white ring at the bottom that didn't dry. I'm not sure if this is because they didn't up-side down long enough before going in the oven or that they weren't up-side down in the oven. If you decide to put them in up-side down, use a wax paper lined cookie sheet to catch the run off.